Nuclear Wonderland
by shadowcalan
Summary: The adventures of the Lone Wanderer Richard Shepherd and the Wandering Psychopath name unknown in the nuclear wonderland of Washington DC better picture coming
1. The GOAT whisperer

Chapter 1

The G.O.A.T. Whisperer

8-3-2274

War, war never changes. Since the dawn of human kind, when our ancestors first discovered the killing power of rock and bone, blood has been spilled in the name of everything from god, to justice, to simple psychotic rage.

In the year two thousand and seventy seven after millennia of armed conflict, the destructive power of man could sustain itself no longer. The world was plunged into an abyss of nuclear fire and radiation and blah blah fucking blah... seriously. Everyone knows the damn fallout back story. The Great War. World war III. Ragnarock. Nuclear war. Whatever you call it, people hid away in glorified self sustained fallout shelters for 20 or so years, and when they emerged, surprise surprise the world was unwelcoming, and mutated beyond belief, it was a hellish pit of festering shit... but for some unexplained reason vault 101 has been closed for near 200 years... this is the story of when that crap changed, and the person who made it happen, and saved the capital wasteland.

"As far as I can tell, you're a perfectly healthy 16 year old boy. So yes, you have to go to class and take the g.o.a.t. Exam," James, Richard's father and the vault's physician, a tall bearded man with black hair, streaked at the temples with grey, said, replacing his eye scope into his pocket.

"But... but im sick, really!" Rich mumbled, feigning a cough, but James just shook his head and messed up his hair messy hair, which was just long enough that it stabbed into his eyes in an annoying way.

"No. Your not. Really," James laughed. "When I began studying medicine, the first thing I did was learn to spot a kid pretending to be sick to get out of an exam."

"But..."

"No buts. You'll do fine. It's not so hard; everyone has to take it when they're 16. I had to, you have to. You'll do fine, OK?"

"If you say so..." Richard said with a defeated sigh.

"Hey it's not my fault, those are the rules." James said, with the usual bitter tone he got when he talked about the rules of the vault or the overseer.

Richard grumbled to himself, and with yet another of his teenage angst sighs, turned and punched the door release button, and nearly crashed right into the constantly frazzled looking Jonas, his black curly hair, constantly mussed and messy, sticking up everywhere, already graying despite his young age of twenty five.

"Good luck today Richie," he said in his normal slightly harried voice, as he adjusted his glasses on his face.

"Thanks Jonas... im sorry but im running late, we'll talk later ok?" Richard said as he hurried past scowling at the nickname Jonas always insisted on calling him, and tossed a quick hello to the Vault's chief mechanic Stanley, who once again looked like he was suffering from what nando knew, through reading his father's medical text books, was vault depression syndrome.

He walked out of the vaults clinic just in time to see his childhood frienc Amata, and his crush of nearly ten years get stopped by Butch and his group of assholes who decided they'd form a "gang" if there can be such a thing in a vault and go around calling themselves the 'tunnel snakes'.

"Get out of my way!" She exclaimed as they surrounded her, trying to shove by Butch, a tall greasy haired guy who, like his friends, wore a leather jacket, with its stupid snake insignia on the back, over his vault suit. "You stupid tunnel snake assholes!"

Butch shoved her against the wall, "why don't we show you a real tunnel snake?" he sneered, grabbing himself lewdly.

"Awh, looks like she's gonna cry!" Wally Mack, a blond haired muscular boy, laughed. "Why don't you go crying to daddy?"

"What's going on here?" Ricard marched up, but was blocked by Paul Hannon, a slight black boy who joined Butch's group of fucktards just so Butch wouldn't beat him anymore, he shot an apologetic look at him.

"Oh look, its smart mouth. I'm afraid I don't have time for your fancy, pretty words right now. Beat it. Cant you see I'm courting your little girlfriend right now?" he said waving Richard away dissmisively.

"Leave her alone butch. Now," He growled, balling his fists. "Or you'll have to answer to me."

"Keep talking like that and we're going to have to send you back to your daddy with a few broken bones to fix," Butch sneered, anger rising into his voice. He reached into his pocket and flipped out his switchblade. "And maybe she'll have a couple extra openings."

"That's it Butch. You and me right now." Richard narrowed his grey eyes.

"OH, You've got to be kidding me. Come on snakes; let's teach this asshole another lesson."

Rich had never been the most muscular kid, but he knew how to fight. His father had made a point of teaching him some moves, after seeing him come home with his fifth black eye.

Wally and Paul advanced on him from either side. he caught Paul's arm as he went to punch him and swung him into Wally, sending them sprawling on the floor. Butch swiped at Richard who barely dodged the little blade and, grabbing the front of Butch's jacket, buried his fist into Butch's face once, twice, and a third time for good measure. Blood spouted from his nose as his head snapped back and he fell to his knees covering his face as tears poured from his eyes.

Paul and Wally stumbled over to and helped Butch to his feat shakily.

"C-come on tunnel snakes..." Butch growled still holding his nose glaring through tears. "This little bitch isn't worth our time."

As Butch was carried off by Wally and Paul, Amata turned and hugged Richard. "Thanks for getting rid of them... your a really good friend! I don't know why they won't just leave me alone... just because I'm the overseer's daughter... idiots."

"Oh well. Why don't you talk to your father about them?"

"You know I can't do that... you know my dad... I just can't" she sighed, stepping away, walking to the vaults school door. "I'm going to go sit down now... get ready for the G.O.A.T.. Good luck..." and she punched the door's release and stepped inside.

As he stepped into the room, Mr. Brotch turned to look at him. "Glad you could make it!" Brotch said in his usual bored and sarcastic tone. "You ready for the g.o.a.t.?"

"Not... Really..." he groaned, but his teacher just smiled.

"Trust me Rich, its not really that bad, just something that we all have to go through, that, if we refuse, will probably result in our getting killed. Or shoved into maintenance department like poor Stanley."

"Do you think I'll do well?" He asked with a gulp.

"... Im sure you will." Brotch shook his head. "Seeing that it's multiple choices. With no wrong answers. We'll start when you're seated."

Nando followed his teacher to the front of the room, dodged an attempt by butch, whose nose was still bleeding by the way, to trip him, to where his seat was.

The second he sat, Brotch began in his drawling voice, "now that EVERYONE'S found the classroom and their seats," he stared pointedly at Richard who slid into his seat quietly, and everyone snickered. "We can begin. No talking, and keeps your eyes to yourselves," Butch laughed "that goes double for you. Mister Deloria. Now, if nobody else has anything insightful to add, let's begin."

He pressed some buttons on his pipboy and a clipboard materialized. He started reciting the g.o.a.t. The questions were pretty straightforward, albeit a bit screwed up. From patients with terrible infections, to your grandmother ordering you to kill another vault residence. To being mutated, to stealing a comic book at gunpoint, even playing a horrible prank on your father. None of those answers were nice. Finally Brotch reached the last question.

"Ok. Last question." he sighed annoyed. "I hate this one... question 10." and his voice grew more monotonous than before, "who is... without a doubt... the most important person in vault 101? He who shelters us from the harshness of the wasteland... and to whom we owe everything... including our lives?"

Richard just stared at the paper. All the answers were 'the overseer'. This is really on here? Does the overseer's ego really need to be stroked this much? He sighed and simply checked the first answer and put his pen down.

"And that's it. The infamous g.o.a.t." Brotch drawled a few minutes later "I'm sure most of you didn't find it so bad, others..." he stared at Freddy who was still struggling over his test "well... there's always openings in the maintenance department. After you hand in your tests, you can have the rest of the day off to celebrate... or pray as the situation may warrant."

Brotch walked up and down the aisles one last time before settling at his desk. The students all stood and lined up at his desk, except for Wally, who just leaned back and stared at the ceiling, and Freddy. Who was still scrutinizing his paper so hard, Nando was shocked it didn't burst into flames.

Amata was first and tentatively handed Brotch her paper. "Here you are Mr. Brotch... I hope I did ok."

Brotch took the paper and pulled out a pen. "I'm sure you did fine Ms. Almodovar, let's see..." he studied her test and compared it to a book he had opened on his desk. "Very good, it looks like you're on the supervisor track." he beamed at her.

Amata breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks Mr. Brotch! See you tomorrow" and she darted out, not before sending a smile of encouragement to Richard, who must have had a look of sheer and utter misery on his face.

What if he didn't get a good job? What if he was forced to do maintenance all day? Sure, he had always liked the head of maintenance, the always sick Stanley, even though he always got a slight feeling Stanley didn't like him, but Stanley again was always sick, and got shit hours since he wasn't very liked by the overseer... imagine if HE Richard got that... he'd never sleep.

"YO TEACH!" Butch exclaimed, snapping him out of his thoughts, slamming his paper down on Brotch's desk "im done."

"Ah... butch" and Brotch beamed a look of sheer joy at the grease ball. "Can I honestly admit that I've been waiting for this for a long, LONG time? Allow me to savor this moment..."

"... yeah, whatever. Just get on with it I want to go home and get some food."

"Oh, alright fine." Brotch rolled his eyes and looked down at the paper, and after a long, drawn out moment of thinking, he giggled to himself. "Well... butch... I didn't think you had it in you... your a hairdresser!" at this he fully burst out laughing. "Who would have thunk it!"

Butch just stared, his stupid jaw falling open and Wally flat out guffawed, propping his feet up on the chair in front of him. Even Richard could barely contain a laugh, which caused butch to break out of his stupor and stare angrily at him.

"You're so full of it!" he exclaimed.

"Nope! You, Mr. Deloria, are a hairdresser!" Brotch beamed at him serenely. "Also, on the way out, you should stop at the clinic. You look like you broke your nose."

Butch stormed angrily from the room, and Paul quietly stepped up to Brotch's desk, and handed him his paper.

"I'm all done Mr. Brotch..." he said unsure. "Uh... actually can I have it back? I'm not sure but... I think I need to change one or two of my answers..."

"Just calm down Mr. Hannon." Brotch said reassuringly, "I'm sure you have nothing to worry about" Brotch went over his paper and with the same degree of scrutiny as he had Butch's, but without the malice, went over Paul's paper. "Yepp, just as I thought. You're going to be an engineer. Congratulations Mr. Hannon, you have passed the g.o.a.t."

"Really?" Paul exclaimed happily. "That's not so bad... an engineer! Me!"

Christine Kendell was the next to hand in her g.o.a.t. And after getting maintenance department, and throwing a hissy fit, stormed her slutty little ass out of the room. Threatening Brotch with her father.

Susie Mack, sister of Wally, practically threw her test at Brotch.

"What does this stupid test say I'm going to be doing the rest of my life?" she spat venomously.

"Now Susie is that any way to talk about the 'infallible' g.o.a.t.?" he playfully scolded.

"Whatever. So what am I?"

"You will be..." Brotch cleared his throat, and visibly paled. "You're going to be a... teacher... surely due to your "gift" for communication... don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds..." he added, more to himself than to Susie.

"About what I expected" she sneered. "See you tomorrow... Edwin." and turned on her heel, and marched out of the room, leaving a miserable looking Mr. Brotch staring at his desk

"God help me..." he muttered.

Just as Richard was about to hand his paper to Brotch, Wally shoved him to the side, almost knocking him over, and threw his paper carelessly at Brotch and stated "im finished." and began walking out of the room.

"Wait! Brotch called. "Don't you want to know your results?"

"nah. I already know what that says. Hardly takes a rocket scientist to decode this joke of a test." and simply walked out without another word.

Brotch just stared after him, slowly shaking his head. "That boy has always had attitude problems..." he sighed and turned to Richard, who finally was able to hand his test in.

"So how did I do?" he asked shakily.

"Well, let's see..." Brotch glanced at the test for a while, and then shook his head. "Huh, I wonder whose going to be your first customer as the vault's new tattoo artist? I can promise that it won't be me..."

Richard stared at the teacher for a moment. Why does a vault need a tattoo artist? "

"Why do we need half the jobs on the damn list? I mean hairdresser? Can't people just cut their own damn hair? Such is life in the 'utopia' that is vault 101!."

he sighed a little "thanks Mr. Brotch, I'll see you tomorrow."

Rich stepped into the hallway and practically ran into Amata who was anxiously standing outside the door.

"So what you get?" she smiled at him.

"Tattoo artist..."

"Really?" she tilted her head. "Doesn't seem like your type of job..."

She laughed but then stopped when she saw his face.

"But im sure you'll like it when you get to doing it!" She added quickly.

He rolled his eyes, "could have gotten stuck in maintenance with Christine."

"Oh my god I heard her hissy fit from here" and after hugging him, she ran off to go tell her dad about her assignment.

Please read and review

I am aware the first chapter was kind of dry, but hey, thats the beginning of any game isn't it?

Next time on Nuclear Wonderland: Escape!

What happens when everybody turns on you? Who do you go to then? WHERE do you go?


	2. Escape

Chapter 2

escape from the vault

8-17-2277

Richard's eyes shot open. Why on earth was he dreaming about the freaking G.O.A.T.? He lifted his left arm and pressed a button his pipboy, lighting up it's screen. It was 6 in the goddamn morning. He sighed, he still had another 3 hours to go before he had to report to work... a job that even 3 years later he still had no idea as to why the vault needed such a frivolous job such as a tattoo artist... but oh well. He had a few more hours to sleep before he had to go in for a 9 to 12 shift, so grinning he rolled over and pulled his blanket over his head.

His bedroom door hissed open, letting in an unholy cacophony of klaxon like noises...probably another damn radroach infestation... Then they hissed shut again. He sighed, it was probably his father checking in on him before heading off to work, even though he didn't start till 7, he still liked to head over early and drink his coffee with his legs crossed on his desk. Unusually though he was shaken violently as a frantic woman's voice hissed. "Wake up! Come one! You've got to get up!" opening an eye he saw it was his, now girlfriend, Amata.

He rolled over and stared right into her eye with the ire of the just awoken. "Leave me alone. I'm sleeping. I have work in a few hours." he then rolled back over and firmly pulled his blanket back over his head.

"NO!" she hissed, frustration in her voice now. "you have to get up! Right now!" she shook him again. "If my father catches you here... I don't know what will happen!"

That got his attention, and he sat up, and scratched the back of his head, and mid yawn managed out,. "why would he be after me? Amata, I haven't done anything wrong in a couple years... hell I think the last time I did something overly bad was breaking Butch's nose the day of our G.O.A.T." which he had paid for, he had to clean the bathrooms for a month after that. Even the one old Mr. Abernathy used, and, remembering that, shuddered slightly.

"This isn't about you!" she stuttered and blushed remembering that night. "Your dad left the vault somehow, and my father has gone crazy... J-Jonas is dead."

"What? Jonas?" Richard felt it hit him, and with that, the last clutches of sleep evaporated from him, he had always been fond of the poor harried looking black man, and his clear, blue eyes focused. "Right, im listening. What happened."

"I'm sorry... I knew you two were friends... the-" her voice hitched. "they beat him... they just wouldn't stop, no matter how many times he insisted he didn't know, or I begged my dad to stop... my FATHER ordered them to do it."

He put his arm around her, and blinked back some tears of his own. "we need to get out of here Hun."

"Yeah... You need to follow your dad. Escape the vault." She looked right into his eyes. "You have to do it now. While everyone is confused."

"Your right, theres really nowhere to hide... The cameras are everywhere."

"I know its none of my business but..." She hesitated, looking down.

"Say it."

"You seem just as surprised as me to learn your dad left... Didn't he tell you?"

He dropped his arms, and began pulling on his vault suit. "No. I had no idea he intended to do this. To leave me. Didn't even say goodbye."

"Oh... I'm sorry... I'm sure he had his reasons..." She stared at the ground. "Maybe Jonas was supposed to explain it to you?"

"Maybe, Or my dad just up and left."

"But that doesn't matter at the moment, I have a plan!"

"... No. Not another of your plans Amata." He scowled. "Remember when you got us locked in utility closet 15? Or that time we got lost in the ventilation system for 3 days? Or that time we got locked in the garbage incinerator and would have been reduced to ashes if Stanley hadn't thought to check first?"

She gave him a long indignant look, then continued undaunted. "I have no time to explain the entire plan," She said a little haughtier than normal. "So trust me and listen. Theres a tunnel that runs directly from my dad's office to the vault door. And you'll have to hack into his office computer to open it."

"And how exactly do you suppose I get into his office. It's always locked."

"Uhm..." She thought, then reached into her pocket and produced a small box of bobby pins and a screwdriver. "remember when we broke into the medical lab to find out who was stealing the med-x and stimpacks?"

He rolled his eyes and pocketed them "It turned out it was Paul on a dare from butch... OK. What makes you think this conveniently placed tunnel will be unguarded?"

Amata let out an exasperated sigh. "Look. We don't have time for this. Just trust me for once. Security doesn't even know about this. Only my father and me..." She reached into her other pocket and pulled out a pistol.

Richard hissed. "Amata... where on earth did you get that?"

"I... I stole it from my father's room." She looked down at it and handed it out to him. "I hope it makes you feel safer."

"Thanks Amata... I'll only use it as a last resort. I promise." And he clipped the gun, and it's holster, to his belt.

"I'll meet you at the vault door. Watch out for security, and don't wait for me if I cant make it," and after pressing her lips to his cheek, slipped out the door and into the hall.

Richard stepped out of his room. In one hand he held his baseball bat, and strapped across his back was a b.b. Gun strapped perpendicular to the strap of a bag that he had stuffed with a couple pairs of clothes and some stimpacks he had stolen from the medical aid box on his bedroom wall.

Almost immediately he ran into one of the vault security. It was an officer whose name he had never really cared to learn. Before the officer could call out to the other guards to alert them he had found the "dangerous fugitive", a group of radroaches overwhelmed him, and while the guards attention was on the little buggers, Richard slipped into the bathroom and out the other door, completely circumventing the guard. Amidst the gloom and flashing alarm lights, a figure moved towards him rather fast. He hefted his bat when...

"You gotta help me!" A familiar unwanted voice called. "My moms trapped with the roaches!"

Richard just stared at the bully, who, had made his life a literal hell since he was about 4 and butch stole his favorite ball. "Butch" He said after a seconds pause. "Your asking me, of all the people in the vault, let alone on earth, for help. If only you could understand, or even comprehend the meaning of the word irony"

"Yea, im asking you... S-so what? Look.. I'm sorry about all the crap I've put you through over the years. You know I never meant any of it, right?"

"Sure. Why not," He narrowed his eyes.

"It's my mom man... You cant just leave her with the roaches"

"Why don't you go in and help her"

"Er... Cos I cant"

"Why not?"

"Cos im... Cos im scared of roaches, now come on! We don't have time for this!"

Richard sighed and gestured in the direction of Butch's room door "alright Butch." then, when Butch smiled, added. "I'm doing this for your mom. Not for you."

"Alright, I don't care! Just please help her!" He punched the door to his apartment and the door slid open "She's locked in the bedroom"

Richard nodded and darted into the room and crossed to the only other door in the room, through which he could hear Ms. Deloria's terrified screams. He rushed in.

Ms. Deloria was standing on her bed, a broom in one hand, a bottle of vodka cradled to her bosom like a baby. She was whacking at the giant cockroaches in a largely unsuccessful campaign to kill the insectile monsters.

Richard rushed in and swept the roaches aside, ordered Butch's mom out of the room, an order she was too happy to oblige. He bashed the roaches with his bat, but they put up a fight and did manage to bite him once, but all in all he made quick work of them. He smirked to himself slightly pleased. "Nothing like the smell of freaking roach guts and vodka," He looked around in mild disgust at the bottles scattered around. "Oh, and I think vomit." He walked into the other room escaped the fumes.

Upon walking into the living area, an annoyingly happy butch rushed up and pulled him into a tight hug. Much to Richard's extreme annoyance. "We- I mean YOU did it! My moms going to be OK! Man your the best friend I ever had!"

"... Sure"

Just then there was a rap on his door, and after a quick peek out the window, Butch turned back and gestured to Richard to hide, he did so. Butch opened the door and talked briefly with security. They asked if he knew where Richard was, them wanting to ask him a few 'questions', and Richard's eyes widened, surely Butch was going to tell him he was there. Butch hated him... just because he saved his mom doesn't mean that ALL of his hatred was going to dissipate...

But he didn't tell them. He told them that he had run by, that he hadn't seem him for a couple of days, and when the guards asked to look around in his apartment, got angry, and shot out an angry stream that just had the guards shaking their heads and walking away.

"You'd better leave," Butch sighed. "Knowing these assholes, they'll be back. And I'm probably gonna spend a week or so in the cells..."

"Why? Cos you yelled at them?"

"No. 'Cos I'm going to make a slight distraction for you. Your dad was always good to the vault, and you don't deserve this manhunt. And I think Mr. 'all powerful' Overseer needs severe a reality check" He cracked his knuckles and shot a feral grin at the other man.

"Butch you cant do that... They killed Jonas just to get information about my dad, They could do the same to you."

"Its a risk im willing to take." He shrugged out of his leather jacket. "Take this."

"No... I cant butch... Thats your tunnel snake jacket..."

"Consider yourself an honorary member. You probably need it more than me right now" And shooting Richard a quick two finger salute, he ran off down the hall.

H moved slowly through the halls of the vault, ducking from shadow to shadow and avoiding the cameras to the best of his ability. He only ran into one officer after he left Butch's apartment, and that was Officer Gomez, who had always been kind to his dad, and to him. Something not many of the other vault dwellers had it in them to do. He too refused to turn Richard in.

The halls were filled with radroaches, so much so that even the normally calm Andy was forced to fight them, literally cooking them from the inside out with his flamethrowers, and slicing them with his buzz saw, Richard gave the robot a wide berth as he snuck by, not much liking, or trusting him... Much for petty reasons, but reasons nonetheless. He left as a bleeding from the head Stanley emerged from the locked med lab and began to perform quick repairs on the robot, who proceeded to insult him mercilessly.

Arriving at the central atrium of the vault he felt a small moment of pride at making half-way. The atrium was a spot where parties and games were played when more room than was normally offered in the diner was needed. Still sticking to the shadows, he observed the freshly married Holden couple whispering about escaping the vault.

They didn't make it past the entrance guards. As soon as the couple entered the small hallway, they were gunned down, their bodies falling limply with a thud to the floor. Richard, sickened beyond belief, darted past the doorway while the security guards finished them off, and ran up a stairwell, dispatching yet more of the stupid radroaches, up to the vault's heart, it's administration level.

The communication room was badly damaged. The large computer towers, which stored so much important information where all out of place and a corpse of a nameless engineer, of whom Richard couldn't even recognize anymore was laying in a puddle of blood, his face half eaten and his glasses broken, scattered away from him.

Reaching up to press the button to release the door saw, through a small window, saw the chief of security doing the same. His heart skipped a beat and he ducked next to the door, and hefted his bat. As Hannon walked into the room, he swung the bat, catching the chief of security in his jaw, sending him down hard.

"I told you! I don't know anything! Let me go!" Amata, who had a large cut on her forehead, which was bleeding badly, screeched at her father, who stood over the chair she was tied into.

"Be reasonable Amata" The Overseer, a tall gray haired Hispanic man said, reason dripping from his voice like venom. "Officer Mack may enjoy this, but I don't"

The door opened and Officer Mack turned, hand on his pistol's holster, then relaxed slightly when the security chief walked in, and, shooting him a delighted little sneer, turned back to Amata.

"We just want to see your little friend. Ask him some questions..." Mack sneered.

"He...He's my friend!" Amata sobbed, looking from her father, to Mack, to the chief, on whom her gaze stuck. "I... was worried about him! What does he have to do with this anyway?"

"Probably nothing" A sickening, yet sad expression ran over his face. "You need to tell me where he is. Now. So we can talk to him"

"No." Amata said defiance burning in her voice.

"...Very well." The Overseer said dryly and as he turned away. "Go ahead Officer Mack."

At that, Mack's ugly face split into a horrible grin as he pulled a large knife from his belt, he knelt in front of her and brought the knife to her cheek, drawing a few drops of blood.

"Its going to be a shame to scar your pretty little face." He spat in her face. "But that wont stop m-"

And he was cut off by the loud 'pop' of a gun ringing out. The Overseer and him turned and stared as the security chief pulled off his helmet and revealed a very angry looking

Richard, who's hair was plastered to his face from sweat from wearing the helmet He shot again and hit Mack in the chest, and, with a jerk, he crumpled to the ground, not moving.

"Amata. Get out of here." He ordered, and as fast as she could, she scurried out of the room.

Storming over, Richard grabbed the front of The Overseer's vault suit, and slammed him against a wall. "If you ever lay a hand on her again, You'll regret it. I swear." Richard growled through gritted teeth. "How could you? Her own FATHER?"

"I place the good of the vault above everything. Even my own paternal feelings!" He stated proudly. "We must not allow sentiment to cloud our judgment!"

Pressing his pistol to the overseer's head, Richard narrowed his eyes, and the older man froze stiff. "If not out of 'paternal feeling' which frankly, I doubt you have even an iota of, how 'bout to save your own life?"

"V-very well... I admire your protective instincts... and give you my word that Amata will not suffer further because of your foolish actions!"

"MY actions?" Richard roared. "All the deaths today have been because of you!"

"No. If you truly cared for Amata, you'd see how truly dangerous your father's actions were, and hand over your weapons, end this dangerous situation... There's no need to join your father as a traitor to the vault!"

"My father was no traitor, and only an idiot would believe you wouldn't just kill me once I gave you my gun." He jammed the pistol under the overseer's chin. "You are a murderer. And a thug."

The Overseer glared at Richard, a look of sheer and utter hatred painting itself across his face in a way that Richard found very pleasing. "Let's let history be the judge of that. If you paid attention to Mr. Brotch instead of staring into space, you'd understand history is invariably written by the victor. And I intend to be the victor. You won't survive this night!"

At that Richard had had enough and simply cracked him over his head with the butt of the gun, effectively knocking him out. muttered "Goodnight you piece of shit." and went through his pockets, taking his office keys and the key card to his computer, then standing, "Unlike you, I don't kill for petty reasons."

Just inside the hallway, leading to the overseer's suite, was Jonas' body. Unceremoniously dumped in front of the chute to the incinerator. Crouching down, Richard shut the frail man's eyes. "poor bastard..." he sighed. "You didn't deserve this..."

In his hand, Jonas clutched a holo-disk, Richard slowly eased it out of his hand, and noted that it had his name on it, in his dad's handwriting. He stared at it for a while, then shoved it into Butch's jacket, which he pulled on over the security body armor he had taken from The unconscious security chief, first things first. Escape.

Eventually he came to Amata's room and looked inside. Amata was sitting at her family table. Covering her head with her hands.

"Are you OK Hun...?" Richard asked, gingerly touching his fingers to her head wound.

"I'm... I'm fine..." she said, wincing at his touch "Did you..."

"No, I left your father alive, although I bet he'll have a serious headache when he gets up," he frowned.

"Thank you..." She let out a breath. "I told you he wasn't himself... Who knows what they might have done if you hadn't come along..."

"Let's not think about that..." He laughed uneasy.

"You'd... better get out of here, I'll try to meet you at the vault door. If I don't..." She kissed him long and hard. "well... good luck."

He stood in the overseer's office, the heart of the heart of the vault. The nucleolus in the nucleus of the cell. He stared at the wooden circle desk, gleaming in the flashes of light from the emergency lights and crossed to the wall of computers. Inserting the password, he sent the command for the secret door to open.

Movement behind him and he whirled, one hand on his baseball bat's handle, the other at his pistol, only to see the desk rising, revealing a stairway leading down into an inky blackness.

Sighing, Richard flipped on his pipboy light, and pulling the bat from his belt, continued down into the darkness. And fought his way through a couple more little radroaches, until ultimately the small path came to an end at a wall, and after a brief pause, during which he simply scowled at the wall, he noticed a button just to the right of a lighter colored section of wall, and pushed it. After being forced to wait while the secret hatch descended.

He emerged in a small control center with a window facing the gigantic steel and lead door of the vault. The controls for the door were not in the small control center, which made Richard wonder it's purpose, but were at the top of the stairs leading down to the door. Shrugging he pulled the door's automatic release.

Suddenly the room was filled with a loud klaxon and a prerecorded voice to 'stand back' as the gigantic steel door to the vault slowly slid out of place, and to the side, revealing a long tunnel with a rickety door at the end, through which light dimly filtered through.

"YOU DID IT!" Amata exclaimed behind him, Causing Richard to jump and nearly piss himself, letting out a shout. "I didn't think it was possible..." she breathed.

"y-yeah..." he said. "I could never have done it without your help though..."

"no..." She shook her head and smiled. "you didn't need me. If anyone can survive out there, it's you."

"You can... you know... come with me" He suggested, but as he took a step down the stairs, guards started banging at the door, shouting.

Looking at the door Amata sighed. "My place is here. The vault needs me. More than you do right now. I'm the only one who has a chance to talk some sense into my dad... listen..." She started and her voice hitched in a sob. "If you find your dad... tell him... tell him I'm sorry for... everything. Jonas... my father... everything."

"Amata..." Richard began, opening his arms to hug her,, but she pushed him away as the door heaved.

"Go Richard. I... Goodbye..."

He turned and ran down the stairs and out into the cave, and with one last look into the vault, saw Amata push the door close button and run back into the secret tunnel. With an apprehensive gulp, he turned and opened the rickety wooden door, and stepped into the light...

please read and review

I hope that this chapter was a wee bit better than the first, and to those of you who liked them, know I'm working on a third.

NEXT TIME ON

Nuclear Wonderland:

First Impressions Are Usually Bad

Even in the post apocalyptic wasteland. You're never truly alone.


	3. First impressions are usually bad

Chapter 3

First impressions are usually bad

8-17-2277

The light was blinding to his eyes, which, after a lifetime underground in vault 101, knowing only artificial light, had made him unable to adjust to the brightness of the sun. using his hand to cover his eyes, he attempted to block out the sun, to no avail. Within his first stumbling steps, he faltered and tripped. Sprawling on the rocks in front of a sign that said 'scenic view.'

"Jesus I'm blind..." he scowled. The vault hadn't had much need for sunglasses, which raised the question as to what the pair of glasses was that had stumbled out of his pockets. "... fucking Butch," he grinned as he grabbed them. "such a dumb ass, but smart at the same time."

The second he pulled the sunglasses on, a part of him regretted it instantly. The 'scenic overlook' that the sign advertised was... scenic alright. The landscape was cracked, and dreary, dotted with the skeletons of humanities' construct. There were frames of houses, rusted hunks of cars, electric towers, billboards, their advertisements now shouting mutely to a world that can't hear, and doesn't care.

"... People did this." Richard said through gritted teeth as he surveyed the view with abject horror, disgust heavy in his voice. "My kind did this."

His pipboy vibrated, and when he checked it, a message appeared on the screen informing him that it had discovered two radio stations. He stared in disbelief, then sighed. Probably were some distress signals from before the war, as shit rained from the sky, but he decided to check anyway. One was some kind of military and government propaganda, playing the same kind of patriotic crap that the vault played every July fourth, he changed it immediately. The second was filled with static, but was playing more likable music. So he decided to keep it on that as he slowly made his way through the rusted out hunks of cars down a ramp that led from the scoff-worthy 'scenic view' sign towards a large cluster of skeletal houses he could only assume was once either a suburb or a very small town.

As He walked from house to house his heart felt like it was full of lead. These where all people. People who were now dead. It was hard to take in all at once... suddenly the hairs on the back of his neck stood up and a shiver went through his body, he spun, his pistol appearing in his hand in time to see... a robot, gently floating past a water tower, where a bit of cloth rustled in the wind.

"But... I could have sworn I saw..." He shook his head and holstered his gun. "Nothing I guess..." and he turned back to the houses. "i should see if I can find anything useful... anything that could possibly come in handy. Not like these people need it anymore..."

He searched through the rubble of the dilapidated houses, finding some stimpacs, a pair of goggles, some ammo, calibers that didn't fit his 10 mm, but ammo nonetheless, a couple unopened cans of beans, a bottle of rad x, one of which he took as soon as he found it, and a backpack, which he shoved all of his findings in and put on.

As he was shifting through the debris, without realizing it, he had come to a large and imposing building. A worn and faded sign outside read "Springvale school" and, since it was now nearing noon, and the sun was high in the sky, Richard decided that it would be better not to keep working, until he found a source of water, having only liberated a couple bottles from the vault, and a few bottles of Nuka Cola from a repeatedly pillaged Nuka Cola machine he had found at what appeared to be a gas station. So he slipped into the seemingly-welcoming darkness of the School.

The room he entered gave him the creeps. There was graffiti all over the walls and skeletons, of which he assumed died from radiation after the bombs fell, littered the ground. Shuddering he took yet more steps into the building, turning his radio to silent, a mode that played the music directly in his head, biometrics, what fun, and put his hand to his gun.

After a few more steps he was sure he wasn't alone, so he decided to turn on his pipboy light to illuminate the room, and see if anyone was in it with him. But as he reached for it, he felt a blinding pain spread from the back of his neck, and his vision faded rapidly into black. He barely managed to swear as he lost consciousness.

His awareness of the pain in the back of his head woke up before the rest of his body did. And he was in large amounts of pain. So for what felt like a long while he just lay there, gritting his teeth and accepting the throbbing pain, and letting his eyes slowly adjust to the barely relieved blackness, something else he rarely had to deal with in the vault.

He had been hit in the head he realized. It was stupid to think that he was the only person on the outside of the vault. There were other vaults after all. At least one hundred and one of them, these must be the people who were kicked out of a vault and became feral. A suspicion which was confirmed when he sat up, with what felt like a truly heroic looking effort, and a snarled-haired looking man, dressed in what looked to be an outfit pieced together from broken bits of rubber, presumably from the tires outside, glanced over at him.

"well, well," the man sneered through a mouth almost as devoid of life as the town Richard had trudged through to get here, save for a few blackened teeth. "Looks like the pretty vault boy is awake!" And before Richard could even attempt to form an answer, the man rushed out of the room, presumably to tell his bosses that the prisoner was awake, so they could try to get info on how to open the vault door, so they could get inside.

Richard's breathing picked up as he realized the hopelessness of his situation. Here he was, trapped by some feral people, in a nuclear wasteland and haphazardly shoved into a cage with another person... who smelled really bad... and happened to be dead he realized, as he shook the guys foot and it fell off with a sickening squelch.

Richard let out a horrified scream and backed up as far as he could get away from the body as the cage would allow. His scream drew attention to a one of his captors, who must have been standing guard at the door, or simply walking past, because he rushed in in a hurry.

The man was taller than the previous one, but his face was completely unreadable. Unreadable because he hid it behind a welding mask, above which white hair stuck up from his head in white spikes. Also unlike the others, he wore what looked like a lab coat underneath his junky tire-rubber jacket. He was the strangest man Richard had ever seen in his whole life. And he read Grognak the Barbarian.

Before the Odd white haired man could say anything, Though he clearly was about to, the First guy walked back into the room, followed by ten equally as filthy men and women, all had wild and crazy hairstyles of varying unnatural colors.

"What are you doing down from the water tower?" One of the men, who wore the fanciest looking junk suit, who clearly must have been the leader, asked the white haired man.

"radio broke, had to tell you guys a mark came out," the man growled back.

"ah... right" the leader said, then on turning to Richard, smiled disgustingly. "Tell us how to open the vault door!"

Richard just stared, his mouth gaping open, and for a split second, debated letting these people in, and having them raid the vault, but then he thought about people like Amata and Butch, and decided against it. A brief moment of smug pleasure wasn't worth killing thousands.

"I'm not helping you guys get into the vault. I can't do that." He sighed. "they won't open the door for me even if I tapped on the security camera."

"You're telling me it can't be opened from the outside?" The leader growled. "i don't believe you."

Richard smiled sadly. "i left the vault to look for my dad. Who escaped the vault and set off the overseer. I'm an exile guy's sorry to disappoint... but my knocking on the door would be just as pointless as one of you guys doing it."

"...look you little fucking worthless piece of meat," The Leader scowled, his already ugly face twisting darkly. "either you tell us how to open the door, or we'll make you tell us."

With a nod from the leader, two of the burlier men opened the cage and pulled Richard out and held him between them. Down on his knees, each of them holding one of his arms. The leader grabbed a hold of his face and Made him look at him and reached back and pulled out a small knife.

The leader noticed the look of horror on Richard's face. "you pretty vault Ass-holes piss me the fuck off! So happy in your fancy glorified holes in the ground... maybe I should carve up your face some? Make you look better." And sneering he pressed the edge of the blade to Richard's cheek.

Suddenly there was a flurry of movement. And a spray of blood spouted from the neck of one of the men and hit Richard and the leader in the face. The white haired man had whipped out a knife and was holding it out in front of him.

"I think that's plenty well enough" He said in a faintly southern, Or what Richard understood as southern from The holo-vids he had watched as a kid.

"What. The. Fuck!" The leader roared and reached for a a shotgun that he had strapped to his Back. But as he reached for it, the White haired man threw his knife, and it stabbed into the man's chest, and pulled him to him by a rope that was tied to a loop at the end of the knife, and with a one quick movement, grabbed hold of the knife again and slashed upwards, opening his chest cavity.

As the leader fell from the attack, which took all of 30 seconds, the others scattered from the room, The man, whose mask was now dripping blood, grabbed the shotgun from the man who had now dropped to his knees, and finished him with a quick rake of the knife across his neck.

"Vault boy. You know your way around a gun right?" he growled as he handed the shotgun handle first to him. "because these raider bastards aren't very happy that I just killed Little Weasel."

"i... uh, yeah. I can use a gun." Richard gulped, grabbing the gun.

"Good. Grab your bag of stuff, on the teacher's desk," he said pointing to a desk. "Then lets go, They're getting reinforcements." and as he said that, a resounding shout went up in the building.

Very casually, as Richard rushed over and slipped his bag on, The nameless man, using the butt of his knife, broke open the window, and knocked clear the more jagged pieces of glass. Nodding he turned to Richard with an air of determination.

"Y-you can't be serious!" Richard exclaimed looking out and down. "This is the third floor!"

The man sighed and slipped off his junk jacket and stabbed the knife in the wall next to the window. "we'll use the rope to slide down. Use your gloved hand," and he held up a hand with clearly malfunctioning pipboy on it. "the glove will keep you from getting burnt." and without another word, he jumped out the window, clutching the rope, and, as he had predicted, he made it to the ground easy.

With an apprehensive glance back at the doorway, in which figures appeared, Richard clutched the Shotgun in his ungloved hand, grasped the rope with his gloved one, and jumped out the window.

Unfortunately when he was about halfway the knife broke out of the wall and He fell, only barely getting caught by the nameless man before he hit the ground and hurt himself. Still, he could tell he was going to get a bruise as the man put him to the ground and caught the knife, replacing it and it's rope in his coat.

"Didn't factor in the fact you're bulkier than me. Them vaults must have good food."

A bullet whizzed past his head, getting a yip from Richard and an annoyed grunt from nameless who proceeded to shove Richard in the direction of the skeletal town. "GO! Run!" he roared "we're not out of the shit yet."

Running into the town, Richard realized, almost stunned at, long he must have been out of it, the sun was beginning to set and it caused the frames of the houses to cast terrifying shadows into the streets, but now wasn't the time to be noticing something like that. The only reason he, in fact, did, was because the nameless person flipped over a collapsed chimney base, dragging Richard with him.

"stay down and keep quiet. Use that toy I gave you only if someone other than me pops back here." the man whispered

"Who the fuck are you?" Richard shot back in a shaky whisper. "Why are you trying to save me?"

"I'm not telling why. But you can call me the Wandering Psychopath. Psycho for short. Not my name, but might as well be. Everyone calls me that."

"But... whats your real name...?"

But the other man didn't answer, instead he flipped out of the Cover, pulling out his knife. Richard stared mute. The man must be crazy, at least 20 armed people were charging towards them, and he thought a puny knife would-

But his thought was cut off as the man ducked and weaved through the rubble, managing to sneak behind a... what had he called them...? raiders, he snuck behind a raider's back and quickly slashed his throat, then, using his body as a shield, grabbed his gun and started shooting back at the raiders, and he managed to successfully kill several of the raiders with their dead comrade's own submachine gun.

One of the raiders got smart unfortunately and pulled a grenade from their belt loop and threw it, but psycho saw it and grabbed the live grenade from the air, and threw it back, sending a bullet into it halfway between him and the raiders.

The distance wasn't far enough, and the grenade blew up, sending shrapnel not just into most of the raiders, but into the man as well, who collapsed hard to the ground. Richard, having gotten so engrossed in watching the man Fight, he forgot he too was a target for the raiders. He remembered though when he heard rubble crackle behind him, and on twisting around at near light speed, raised his shotgun and without thinking, fired, killing the disgusting man with blackened teeth who had been guarding him, but not before he himself pumped a bullet into Richard's chest.

Richard crumpled to the ground coughing and wheezing, blood flowing from the wound and coming up with his shuddering breaths as the shotgun fell from his hand. The surviving raiders all turned and started advancing on Richard, who could still see them through the red haze that was rapidly filling his vision, and he could swear, as he collapsed onto his face, he saw what had to be the weirdest dying image ever. The man, who had effectively killed himself to save him stood up, his mask, now ruined falling to the ground. His white air sticking straight up from pale, nearly albino skin. His eyes blazed red as blood as he saw Richard laying collapsed, and he roared, a sound that fell deaf on Richard's ears, as for the second time today, and possibly the last time ever, his world faded to black.

please read and review

Tell me how the fighting scene was please people, not used to writing them and.. kinda felt random to me.

NEXT TIME ON

nuclear wonderland.

Following In His Footsteps?

Is anywhere in the wasteland safe enough to call home?


	4. Waking Up

Chapter 4

Waking Up

9-1-2277

His eyes flew open, only to be instantly squeezed back shut as they met with the burning sunlight that seemed to be almost filling the room. He tried to grope around next to what he was laying on, it seemed to be a mattress on the floor, trying to locate Butch's sunglasses or those goggles that guy had given him.

Wait... a mattress? He had passed out! How long had he been unconscious?! The last thing he remembered he had been laying in pain in the burnt out rubble of a house after getting shot and saw... what was probably a hallucination due to the intense pain... but he saw that guy come back to life... what had he called himself? Psychopath? The white haired guy, where was he? Richard couldn't help wonder, although for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why he cared so much.

He could hear two voices talking quietly in the other room, he couldn't hear them because they had music playing, which partially drowned them out. He shifted in the bed, which caused a sharp shoot of pain to leap up his arm, just to remind him of the fact that he got shot causing him to gasp loudly and fall back on the mattress he was laying on.

His gasp was clearly heard by the two people in the other room, as they fell silent and turned the volume of the radio down so as to listen, one of the voices, clearly a man, asked the other if he heard something to which the other, an older man, growled something back at him. Shortly, Richard heard the chairs scraping back and the voices started moving towards the door to the room he was in. Richard tried to get up but yet another stab of pain washed over him in a wave of nausea, which caused him to, again, fall back on the mattress, he naturally swore.

Eyes still screwed shut, both to avoid the painfully bright glare of the sun and the pain which was now throbbing dully because of his attempts to move, he heard the two men enter the room.

"Is he awake?" a gruff voice was asking in a testy bark.

"dunno do I? You're the damned doctor around here," the younger voice said, laughing a little.

Richard groaned loudly. "yes. I'm pretty sure I'm awake dammit... do you guys know where my sunglasses or goggles are?"

"ah... right, a vault boy." the kinder voice said.

Richard felt something pressed into his hand, it was the goggles the psychopath had thrown at him. "Th-thanks mister... I'm sorry, what's your name?" he asked as he pulled on the goggles. "why are you guys helping me..?"

"it's not for you," the gruff man, a graying older black man with sparse stubble dusting his cheeks grunted. "it's a favor for-"

"Never mind that now." the younger, another black man with a big beard and long black hair tucked into the collar of a duster he was wearing, hidden under a black, from what Richard understood from the movies the vault would show, a hat cowboy's would wear, cut off the older one. "I'm Lucas Simms. This is Doctor Leonard church." he pointed at himself first than the grayed man

Groaning Richard looked up at Doc Church "You're the doctor?"

"When I feel like it. Why."

"Can I... can I have some morphine? I have money... I took some from the vault."

"Morphine?" The younger asked, slightly confused.

"That's what they called Med-X before the war fucking vaults... But still, probably pre-war money. That junk is just green paper." the 'Doctor' growled.

"Come on Church, you know, if you want him out of here you have to make sure that he can walk out of here without slumping back over."

The doctor shot the cowboy hat wearing Simms a slightly hostile look. "Sometimes I regret coming to this town." but he still turned and started rummaging through a drawer, quickly producing five syringes. "Here. You want more. Bring some real money." uncapping one of them he proceeded to tie up Richards left arm and give him the shot.

The pain almost immediately dissipated from his arm. The dose of the morphine wasn't enough to make him numb or go completely loopy, but was enough to dull the pain to a vague throb. "that feels great already... thanks Doctor."

"Whatever. You two get out. I have real, non pampered assholes to take care of." and he turned and walked out of the room, which Richard could now see was made out of what looked to be tin plating, loosely attached, which explained the sunlight radiating into the room.

"...Yeah we really should probably get out of here before the Good Doctor shoots us, he's always had a kind of.. curt way about him." Simms sighed to himself, opening a bag next to the mattress and pulling out Richards Vault suit, boots, And a black T-shirt. "Your jacket unfortunately was damaged so we had to have our resident merchant repair it, Moira's her name."

"Moira? I think I should stop by and thank her for helping me not have to run around naked, shouldn't I?" Richard laughed a little as he sat up and slowly pulled on his clothes, he may have numbed his wound, but that doesn't mean that his arm was completely healed. He'd have to be careful for a little bit.

The two, stepped outside into the town. Richard was dumbfounded at the sight of it. It was large, built up in and on the walls of a crater out of what looked suspiciously of airplane parts and other various salvaged materials, pipes stretched from building to building in every tier of the catwalks and pathways that crisscrossed the walls. Surrounding the town was a large wall made of scraps of steel expertly welded together to make a near impenetrable wall, in the center of the crater-like-town was a small pool of water, the center of which sat... "is that a fucking nuclear bomb?!" Richard gaped.

"That?" Simms said, chuckling a little. "That's the namesake of our town! Welcome to Megaton!"

"A... Are you insane?! How can you even sleep with that in the center of your town?!"

"Now, your new here so I'll let your shock slide," Simms said a little serious. "The bomb is inactive, that guy who brought you in, that guy with the white hair? He disarmed it while you were in a coma, he disarmed it. Told us to give you the reward, then vanished one night after buying an old pip boy, saying he was off to help some outcasts."

"oh cool I get a re-wait. I was in a coma?! How long was I out?!" Richard exclaimed. "why didn't you mention that before?!" all Richard could think of was how far could his dad possibly be now, he'll never catch up with him at this rate.

"Oh, right, you've been out for fifteen days."

"F- FIFTEEN DAYS?!" he shouted, earning a stare from several people who were milling around what looked like a restaurant across the path that served as a main street. But he didn't care, all he could think about was where on earth his father could possibly be.

Simms had rooted a small key out of one of the hundreds of pockets on his duster. "here, this is the reward that was so kindly passed on to you," he sighed, casually choosing to ignore Richards outburst. "We were going to give him the uninhabited house in town, but, it's yours now. And you can even decorate it through Moira! Though she'll charge the hell out of you.."

Richard laughed a little deliriously. "thank you, at least I have SOMEPLACE to call home.."

Simms smiled gently and patted Richards shoulder. "Look kid, it ain't that bad..."

Slowly nodding Richard looked up at the man. "Could you possibly be able to tell me if you've seen anyone that looks like me?"

Simms scratched his beard, leaning against the railing in front of the clinic. "someone that looks like you eh? Well other than that white haired guy, who was wearing a mask, the only other new guy, well... CLEAN new guy I've seen lately headed up to Moriarty's saloon then quickly left town, you might want to ask Colin if he's seen anything."

"Ok..." Richard sighed. "But first I should quite probably check out my house..."

Laughing Simms pointed up at a Two floor building precariously perched at the end of a cat walk towards what had to be the front gate of the town. "There she is, Your home sweet home."

"Thanks Simms, you're alright," Richard smiled.

"Haha, That's Sheriff Simms kid," And winking just to let Richard know he was joking, turned and walked up an opposite path.

His new house was surprisingly big inside, and confusingly well taken care of, for an abandoned house, especially an abandoned house in a world like this. Inside it had two floors , the bottom floor was a living room like area connected to a kitchen and upstairs was a balcony circling the living room so he could look down at it, and two doors, one of which led to a bedroom, he could tell it was a bedroom, because it came with a metal desk, filing cabinet and a bed.

On the bed sat a rather large metal box, with an attached note, written in slanted, almost elegant, neat deliberate letters.

_Richard,_

_ You don't know who I am, and hopefully, you never_

_ do. It would be better for you if you just didn't know. Just _

_ remember this, I don't expect you to try to find me, and,_

_ I don't know, try to pay me back. I don't want that. This isn't out _

_ of the kindness of my heart, Just use these _

_ to help you find James, he's still out there. Trust me, I know he_

_ has a very particular set of skills, which are very useful out here._

_ Be safe..._

It didn't have a Signature, instead it was signed with a small drawing of what looked to be an eye, with the iris and pupil replaced with a swirl, with a red line going through the eye vertically. Sighing Richard put the note on the desk. The weird symbol, seemed too familiar. He could swear he'd seen it somewhere very recently.

He took the top off the box and threw it to the side on the bed, inside, on the top of his messenger bag, lay the shotgun he had used The other day on top, although it was very clear a lot of maintenance had gone into it. Taped to the side of it was a bandanna tied into a bag with fifteen shells in it.

"Well hell." Richard laughed. "I think that's going to be useful..."

Also in the box, Once he lifted out his messenger bag, which was a little bit heavy, he saw a belt on a bag, a fanny pack if he remembered correctly, and his 10 mm pistol that Amata had given to him. Along with another bag of ammo.

Shaking the fanny pack he smiled at the jingling. "Did he give me money?!" then, upon opening the pack he frowned deeply. "Bottle caps?!" and indeed it was full of the things.

Still frowning, he pulled out yet another note in the elegant handwriting. It explained that the world no longer ran off of dollars and cents, as the vault would have led him to believe, but, due to pre-wars addiction to caffeinated beverages and the sheer abundance of them, the wasteland's economy now ran off, of all things, which the note almost sarcastically said, bottle caps.

Bottle. Caps. BOTTLECAPS. Richard could not believe how impossibly absurd that was. But oh well. After counting them out, then dropping them back into the pack, found he had 100 caps. Better than nothing. The messenger bag held a few cans of pork-n-beans, a couple bottles of water and, much to Richards pleasure, a bottle of Nuka-Cola. He loved Nuka-Cola.

"Alright, next stop, Moriarty's!" he said, a little cheerier than he had been before.

Stepping into the bar he was met with the usual smells of a bar, which said wonders for the realism of the bar in the vault, the stench of stale alcohol, and sweat, permeated the air. This bar had a little something different, and it took Richard a second before he could figure it out, It was the smell of depression.

At the bar sat a kind faced man, whose looks were only made intimidating by the eye patch tied on his face. He sat hunched over his drink as the much older man, who looked like he'd be right at home with the terrifying people in the schoolhouse's remains, next to him ranted and raved about some woman who called rape or something after they had sex.

"stupid radio," a low gravely voice grunted, the person's face was just as gruesome as his voice, he looked like he belonged in one of those old monster flicks that Amata always had a penchant for.

"I keep telling you. It's NOT the radio, it's the Damned station," his complete opposite, a gorgeous woman leaning against the opposite side of the bar said, she had a cigarette in her hand. It's smoke slowly curling towards the ceiling, adding to the unique scent that made up the bar's atmosphere.

But he continued to hit the radio and mutter in his gravelly voice, so she sighed and gave a shrug before she walked away, ignoring the leer of the scuzzy man on the other side of the bar as she passed him.

Richard shrugged, figuring that the man behind the bar must be the bartender, and thus would very probably know who was who, and, given his fathers penchant for scotch, would have seen his dad, if his dad had really passed through here. So he stepped up to the bar, and leaned against the counter, and when the horrible looking person... Gob, he corrected himself, ignored him, he cleared his throat.

That caused a dramatic reaction. The man.. GOB! Jumped about a foot in the air and let out a strangled yelp, causing the two men to look out of the corner of their eyes at Richard, before quickly returning to their drinks.

"H-Hey smooth-skin... you need something? A drink maybe? Any-anything at all?" He stuttered in his ghastly rough voice.

"Hmm.." Richard said, scratching his chin. The man may be hideous but he seemed just as scared of him as Richard probably would have normally felt about him. "Let me think on that for a moment, my good man." He said civilly.

"W-Wait," Gob said, dumbfounded. "you're not going to hit me? Yell at me?"

"N-no.." Richard said slightly taken aback.

"What about berating me.. are you going to berate me?" Gob said woefully.

"I.. ah... I hadn't planned on it," Richard said, flicking his attention to the two other men at the bar, who had lapsed into a conversation about something called Lakelurks.

"Well now, that's a surprise," Gob said, his face lifting ever so slightly, though with how twisted his face was, his expression could be doing cartwheels of emotional joy. "I'm used to every asshole smooth-skin in this town giving me shit just because I happen to look like a corpse." then, twisting his face into a gruesome and stomach churning smile, "I'm Glad to see that there are a few worthwhile people out there."

The two men got up and left then, the door creaking loudly behind them as they departed, gob's milky eyes followed their movements until the door screeched shut.

"Listen," He whispered, his eyes darting around the room. "Moriarty would have my head if he caught me selling things at a discount but... for you, I'll risk it."

"Thanks but.. Look," Richard sighed. "You don't need to put yourself in such danger, Gob, look, I'm looking or my dad. He's a middle aged guy, kinda looks like me but with a graying beard?"

"Oh! Yeah! I remember seeing him, that explains why you look so familiar." Gob said, snapping his fingers. "honestly, I usually keep my head down.. unfortunately.. tend to get smacked around for looking people in the eye, but, I remember seeing Moriarty talking to him. Odds are he wrote about him in his computer, he writes about everyone in that damn thing. If you're stealthy enough you could probably sneak back and get at his computer."

"Won't it need a password?"

"Unfortunately.. I don't know it, But I think Nova does, she's the one who told me about it." Gob said, gesturing at the breathtaking woman he had been talking to. "and, kid, you'll still get the discount, don't worry about it, two for the price of one sale."

Richard walked over to the woman Gob had indicated, Nova, who was currently on her hands and knees with a rag attempting to clean up a bloodstain in a floor in a small alcove room to the right of the bar. As Richard walked into the room she stood up and sighed, wiping sweat off of her brow. As she noticed him staring she turned and smiled to him.

"Sorry, technical difficulties." she chuckled. "There was a uhm.. bar fight I guess."

"A bar fight?" Richard dubiously. "This much blood from a bar fight?"

"Well... a shooting! But unlike most of them, the bad guy lost."

"The bad.. uhm never mind," Richard sighed. "I'm looking for my dad, a middle aged guy, looks like-"

"Yeah I remember him, heard you talk to Gobby, blah blah, he talked to Moriarty. It's hard to forget a handsome man like that, his voice..."

"Look, I'd love to spend time talking to you, but I'm kind of in a hurry to find him... I mean, I'm sure you're a blast to spend time with but, I just miss him."

"hmm maybe after you're done finding him we can spend time together, I'd love to spend time with you too. I can help you, but you'll have to be quiet about it."

"i promise then."

"Alright, go to the back of this place, into the office, and use the terminal in there. All the information you want should be in there. Moriarty records EVERYTHING there" Then, pressing a piece of paper into his palm smiled and said. "Here's the password to it, good luck sweetie."

Richard quickly went outside and moved around to the back of the building and encountered a locked door. After a quick Examination of the look he smirked. It was simpler than the lock on old man Jenkins' Door. When him and Amata were attempting to discover the secret behind the disappearance of the Nuka-Colas in the Diner. He quickly popped open the lock, after a quick look around the room, and slipped inside.

He emerged in a small office space from which he could see a little bit of the office. Staying low, he crossed to the terminal and entered the password, which just happened to be "password" not very creative. After the usual data and other difficult to decipher nonsensities, he came across a list of files, each with names of different people on them, But only one of them mattered to him, He clicked on the file labeled "James" and began to read.

So, out of nowhere, James came back to Megaton!. Since he

stayed here before he asked me where the hell he could get a lay of the land

and find out what's going on in the world. I told him about Galaxy News Radio

in the ruins of D.C., and like that he was gone again.

I remember the first time he showed up, almost twenty years ago.

I never expected someone to actually want to or be able to get INTO a vault,

but he must have had his reasons. He had his kid with him, some baby that

wouldn't shut the fuck up. Normally I would have kicked someone like that

out of my place, but he had a way with words. Then, like that, he nicks into

Vault 101 and he's bloody gone for 20 odd years. Nice guy I suppose, never

spends enough damn caps.

As Richard neared the bottom of the entry his heart began to beat fast. What did it mean James went INTO vault 101?! he was sure he had been born in the vault.. wasn't he? James always said they were. "Born in the vault, die in the vault," That's what the phrase was.. it was true, right?

But before he could dwell on it, he heard footsteps and voices moving towards the office he was in and quickly, and silently, ducked back out the door and hurried quickly back to the catwalks crisscrossing the town heading to the store that Simms had indicated, the Craterside supply. He would think about what the entry had said only when he found his dad. And he would have his answers.

He walked into a building that could very barely be described as a building. It had a long counter and was manned by a attractive, albeit older, woman with bright red hair, leaning against a wall to the side of the door was a mercenary dressed in what had to be leather armor. Behind the woman, on the wall hung something that caused Richard to stare in confusion.

It was a vault 101 jump suit with.. some modifications. Namely it had had some armored plating on it's right shoulder and a bracer on it's right arm. It also had various padding and pouches all over it.

He must have been staring for a few minutes because the woman calmly cleared her throat. "So! I hear you're that stray from the vault right?"

"Er uhm... yeah I guess you could say that," Richard said, a little huffiness to his voice.

"i haven't seen one of you in ages!" she continued, unperturbed. "Good to meet you! I'm Moira Brown! I run the Craterside Supply. But what I really do is mostly tinkering and research."

"Nice to meet you Moira.. I'm Rich-"

"SAY!" She exclaimed, cutting him off. "I'm working on a book about the wasteland! And I just thought it would be great if the forward was from a vault dweller. How about you help me out huh?"

"Yeah... Sure I guess. I've got PLENTY to say about life in the vault," He said, a slight bitter tone.

"Great!" She said gleefully, again unperturbed by his tone. "Just tell me what it's like to live underground all your life, or to come outside for the first time, or whatever strikes your fancy."

"This outside place is amazing!" He said, mocking her joyous tone. "In the main room, I can't even see the ceiling! The Lights are a little too bright though."

"HAH! Yeah.." She laughed. "You wouldn't believe how hard it is to change the big light bulb up there. But in all honesty, that's great for a forward. Open with a joke and all." Then after looking around for a little. "Here, Take this suit- Something tells me you're going to need it. You're going back out there, right?"

"Ah... yeah I am." he said after she took down the suit from it's case and handed it to him.

"But actually, would you mind helping me with other parts of the book? I can pay you, and I just think it will be SO much fun."

"Pay..? what kind of pay are we talking? And what kind of work?" Richard said a little dubiously, stuffing the armored vault into his bag.

"Let's see..." she said pulling out a clipboard and running her finger down it as if trying to find a place "Dealing with Radiation, testing an experimental device, and I'm not going to lie, it may include some reading. And for all that I can pay you in caps, chems, and maybe a few o my more interesting inventions, you interested?"

"Sounds good actually," Wanderer said. "I need some form of income."

"Well it's dangerous out there in the wastes, Right?" she said beaming. "People need a compilation of good advice. Like a... Wasteland Survival guide! For that, I'm going to need you to be my assistant and test my theories. I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt because of one of my mistakes!"

Then adding under her breath. "Then they just yell a a lot. At me. With mean... mean words.."

"Ok," He sighed. "i guess help you with this 'Survival Guide'"

"Alright then! Now I think the first chapter will have to be about surviving day to day dangers." she said happily. "Things like where it is and is not safe to find food... The dangers of radiation... and how to avoid and even profit from disarming landmines.. oh, doesn't that just sound like oodles of fun?!"

"Well... I guess getting food doesn't sound so bad. What exactly are you looking for?"

"Well food AND medicine. Everyone needs them once in a while, right? So they need a good place to find them, you know? Therese an old super-duper mart not far from Megaton. I need to know if a place like that still has some food or medicine."

"Alright, guess I'm checking out Super Duper Mart."

NEXT TIME ON

Nuclear Wonderland

Back Into The Wastes

How can you go on when every fiber of your being screams "it's too late!"


End file.
